ISL: Mumbai City FC 0-3 Chennaiyin FC

The goal drought continued for Mumbai City FC, and their record of five successive clean sheets was brought to a grinding halt by an efficient performance by Marco Materazzi's Chennaiyin FC. With Chennai missing Elano, John Stiven Mendoza and Gouramangi Singh, this was seen as the perfect opportunity for Mumbai to get back into goal scoring ways, but it wasn't to be, as some clinical finishing from Chennai and some catastrophic defending from the hosts ensured that there was only one way the game was headed. The result took Chennai three points clear of Atletico de Kolkata at the top the table, and left Mumbai with plenty of work to do, if they are to finish in the top four. Here are the five major talking points from the game, held at the DY Patil Stadium.

#1 Cagey, scrappy first half

Whether it was the fear of losing or just the tight schedule getting to the players, both teams sturggled to string a set of passes together in the first half. Without Elano to dictate the play, Chennai looked rather lost, and for Mumbai, Andre Moritz tried to do too many things on his own.

The first half was strewn with mistakes in midfield, as neither side was able to create a foothold for themselves in the game.

Chances in the first half were few and far between. When they did arrive though, they were through defensive errors, and not any concvincing build-up play. Even then, Chennai were restricted to long range shots, while Mumbai had one fantastic hance, when Bernard Mendy was dispossessed by Lalrindika Ralte, and the Indian set up Moritz whose right footed shot was brilliantly saved by Gennaro Braigliano in the Chennai goal.

That was as close as we came to seeing a goal in what can arguably be termed as one of the more boring periods of football in the league.

#2 Moritz goes off injured

When he was on the field for the first 35 minutes, Andre Moritz was the centre of attraction. Whenever he lost the ball to any challenge – fair or unfair – his arms were up and he was always at the referee’s ears. When a team-mate didn’t play the right pass, Moritz was never hesitant in giving him a mouthful.

But, to be fair to him, he seemed the one player in a blue shirt who could make things happen. Mumbai’s best chance of the game fell to him, but he was denied by Bracigliano. When he went off with trouble in his hamstring, he was replaced by Freddie Ljungberg. While the crowd, including Mumbai owner Ranbir Kapoor, were delighted to see the Swede back in action, there was always a feeling that Mumbai wouldn’t pose as much a threat without Moritz.

And that fear turned out to be true, as Mumbai couldn’t muster a single notable effort on goal from the time Moritz went off till the final whistle

#3 Comedy of errors opens floodgates

After Balwant Singh was unable to reach a pass from Bojan Djordjic, Pavel Cmovs somehow contrived to gift Chennai an opening goal. Cmovs stepped on the ball, and it ricocheted on to the feet of Jeje Lalpekhlua, who centred it to Balwant. Balwant once again failed to control the ball, but Peter Costa behind him had an ugly swipe at an attempted clearance, but let the ball go through to an unmarked Bruno Pelissari, who fired in his second goal in as many games with a neat finish past Subrata.

If that was a comedy of errors, there was nothing as such involved in Chennai’s second goal, but that was because Mumbai simply stopped playing. Jairo Suarez’s free kick was flapped at by Subrata, and after the goalkeeper went down, the Mumbai players seemed to stop, looking to hear the referee’s whistle. Dhanachandra Singh, though was alive to the situation, and tucked a neat right footed shot into the far corner to make certain Chennai’s win, and knock the stuffing out of Mumbai.

#4 Cristian does an Elano

In the first half of the league, giving away a free kick to Chennai in shooting range was considered fatal, as Elano would make you pay. With the Brazilian star missing, Mumbai would have been forgiven to think that it was alright to stop a Chennai attack that way.

With 85 minutes gone on the clock and trailing by two goals, Mumbai were desperate to win the ball back, and in his anxiety, Johan Letzelter stopped Chennai substitute Cristian Hidalgo in the middle of a burst through the centre, and Chennai were awarded a free kick from 25 yards and Letzelter was booked. To add insult to injury, it was the Frenchman’s 4^th booking in the league so far, which means that he will have to sit out Mumbai’s next game in Delhi.

Although Subrata lined up a five-man wall, it didn’t matter, as Cristian floated a beautiful free kick towards the far post, and the ball eluded Subrata’s outstretched arms to give the Spaniard his first ISL goal, and to add an icing to an already sweet cake for Chennai.

#5 Mumbai just cannot score!

Although a solid defense is considered a good base for a football team, ultimately, the sport is about putting the ball in the back of the net. Mumbai seem to have forgotten how to do that. After they drew a blank yet again, it is now 391 minutes since they last scored a goal.

It could be considered as alright if Mumbai were creating chances and were unlucky, but on the basis of having seen them play in their last two games, one has to really wonder where Peter Reid is going to get his side’s next goal from.

Once Moritz was forced off the field, the little threat that Mumbai carried was also gone. Especially in this game, Mumbai needed to play the ball to the strikers early, and exploit the lack of pace in the aging Mikael Silvestre, but even though Didika in the first half, and Subhash Singh later, tried to play on SIlvestre’s shoulder, Mumbai showed no urgency in trying to get the ball forward.

Peter Reid has to soon come up with a strategy that sees Mumbai threaten the opposition goal, or that muh valued semifinal berth might get out of Mumbai’s reach.